NORTH PORT, Fla. — Spencer Strider returned to the mound Monday for the first time in almost a calendar year and threw 2⅔ perfect innings for the Atlanta Braves in their spring training game against the Boston Red Sox, striking out six of the eight batters he faced.

“That was good,” Strider said. “It was like a little reward sprinkled on the pathway, a good test for the work you’ve been doing.”

It was better than good; he was exceptional. Strider had two three-pitch strikeouts in the first inning, finishing former teammate Vaughn Grissom with a slider and then whipping a 98 mph fastball past the motionless Roman Anthony for strike three. He struck out the side in the second inning, deploying three different pitches to close out the three Boston hitters.

Strider had elbow surgery last April, after he was diagnosed with damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, an injury that was the first in a wave that hit the Braves last season. Spencer went into spring training of 2024 among the favorites to win the NL Cy Young Award, and now he is working his way back toward rejoining the Braves’ rotation — perhaps sometime in mid- or late April.

With his outing against the Red Sox, Strider started his game progression toward a regular season return to what is already a good Atlanta starting rotation. In a sense, Strider is just starting his exhibition season, and if all goes smoothly in his next starts, he’ll slowly build his pitch counts.

Chris Sale won the NL Cy Young Award last year, and on Monday morning, Sale was formally announced as the Braves’ starter on Opening Day. But Sale spoke of how dynamic Strider is as a pitcher, with his high-riding, high-velocity fastball; in 2023, Strider led the majors with 281 strikeouts.

“Let’s not forget, he’s still the best pitcher on this team,” Sale said.

Strider responded, “He’s delusional … I am certainly appreciative of that statement. I don’t agree with it.”

Reynaldo Lopez and Spencer Schwellenbach are also part of the Atlanta rotation. Ian Anderson, Grant Holmes and AJ Smith-Shawver are competing for the fifth spot. Strider, who has grown a full beard around the moustache for which he is known, has the ability to augment the Braves in what is likely to be a highly competitive NL East.

Strider was welcomed warmly by the fans here when he took the mound, and the reaction from the stands grew with each subsequent strikeout. Hitters and pitchers don’t game-plan in spring training the way they will in the regular season, but Strider’s sequence of pitches and his stuff — a mix of mid-90s fastballs, sliders, changeups and curves — overwhelmed the Red Sox hitters.

Strider threw a 96 mph fastball past Red Sox prospect Marcelo Mayer to get to 1-2 count and then spun a curveball that was 17 mph slower, with Mayer flailing over the top.

Strider knew as he went out to start the third inning that he probably would face only a couple of batters. After he struck out his final hitter of the day, punctuating the delivery with his pronounced follow-through, he took a couple of steps toward the Braves’ dugout. In the moment, he did not realize that there were just two outs.

“I have not pitched in a while, so I forget how many outs there are in an inning,” he said, smiling. “I was not a math major in college, either, so counting to three is a big chore for me.

“I think I got a little ahead of myself and forgot that they had to come get me, and I can’t just walk off. I have to have adult supervision.”

He’ll figure that part out in the weeks ahead. He appears to have a lot of the pitching part down already.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Minnesota Twins third baseman Royce Lewis will miss Opening Day with a moderate left hamstring strain, the team announced Monday.

The Twins did not provide a timetable for his return, but a stint on the injured list seems probable due to the typical recovery period.

Lewis, 25, sustained the injury during Sunday’s Grapefruit League game against the Boston Red Sox. He felt it as he was running up the line after he bounced to third leading off the second inning. He is batting .346 (9-for-26) this spring with three RBIs and a stolen base.

Lewis batted .233 with 16 home runs and 47 RBIs in 82 games last season, when he missed more than two months with a quadriceps injury sustained on Opening Day.

The No. 1 overall pick of the 2017 MLB draft is a career .268 hitter with 33 homers and 104 RBIs in 152 games.

His development has been slowed by a variety of injuries, including ACL surgery on his right knee in both 2021 and 2022. Lewis missed the entire 2021 season after slipping on ice during a winter storm at his Texas home, forcing a surgery. He had ACL surgery on the same knee the following year.

He opened the 2023 season on the 60-day injured list while he recovered from his June knee surgery. He also had IL stints that year with a strained left oblique and a left hamstring strain.

Information from Field Level Media and the Associated Press was used in this report.

Avid bowler — and Los Angeles Dodgers star — Mookie Betts has bought the first announced team in the new World Bowling League.

The league’s owner, League Sports Co., announced the purchase on Tuesday but didn’t reveal financial terms.

Betts is buying the team with Cam Lewis, his business partner with The One Marketing Group. They have named it Team OMG.

An eight-time All-Star, three-time World Series champion and former American League MVP, Betts was a competitive bowler while growing up in Tennessee. And he still bowls. The morning after his 30th birthday party in 2022, Betts bowled a perfect 300.

The World Bowling League hasn’t announced the remainder of its team lineup, but there are expected to be franchises around the world, including in Dubai.

When the league’s formation was announced in 2023, organizers said the WBL would have 12 to 15 events per year, held from the United States to Europe to Asia, with hopes of expansion within five years. Between eight and 12 franchises were expected to compete in the first year, with each team featuring at least two women to promote gender balance.

The announcement came the day the Dodgers began the 2025 season with a win against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo. Manager Dave Roberts said Betts will not play in the two-game Tokyo Series because he is still recovering from an illness that caused him to lose 15 pounds.